Happy Halloween!

Today was Sophie's 2nd Halloween. I still remember my little flower last year...so small, so sweet. She laid in my arms as Joe and I passed out candy. She only lasted about 20 minutes since it was so cold. 

As you could already tell from the previous post, this year Sophie was a ladybug. {I'm sensing a garden theme...I need to break that next year!}

Look at the sad, floppy antennae. Ha!

I know there are a lot of people who take their 1 year olds, or those younger, out trick-or-treating. I don't really see the need for this (more power to you if you do this-just my own thoughts on it all). She isn't going to eat the candy so it would just be for us and we can buy our own candy. (We will take her next year though.) So once again this year, Sophie sat outside with us to help pass out candy. We didn't get that many trick-or-treaters, so mostly Sophie just played in the candy bowl.

She loved pulling out the Hersey Kisses. She would push away the bigger pieces of candy to find all of the kisses.

She even tried to stick a few kisses into her mouth...with the wrapper still on! (You can barely see the foil on the kiss she is putting in her mouth in the picture below.) She was very good though and always took them out of her mouth and gave them to me when I asked for them.  

Since it was Halloween and she was so interested in the kisses, we decided to let her have some. We don't normally give Sophie sweets except on rare occasions. I mean we do feed her a lot of 'crap' food like nuggets and fries because she will actually eat them, but usually no sweets (with the exception of rice krispie treats and her birthday cake/cupcakes). She does drink chocolate Pediasure from time to time, so she knows what chocolate tastes like, but Hersey Kisses are the real deal. She LOVED it!

Yum!

Notice the chocolate fingers and tongue. She couldn't get enough!

She wants more!



Besides loving chocolate, Sophie really enjoyed all of the kids who came to our house for candy. Every time they would come to the porch she would spin around to look at them. Half of the time she squealed in delight or 'ohhhhhhhh' excitedly at them. A few of my old students stopped by and Sophie was giggling and pointing as they came down the driveway. Sometimes Sophie would grab a piece of candy from the bucket, as if she were going to pass it out to the kids. She would never give the candy up if she did this, but it was the thought the counted. We still had trick-or-treaters when we took Sophie inside. Every time the doorbell would ring she would say "ohhhh!" really loud and crawl toward the door. Adorable!

It seems like Sophie had a great time this year on Halloween. I can't wait until next year. I have a feeling that she will love going door to door, especially when she sees all of the chocolate she will get!

"Would you like some candy?"
(Notice the mouth full of chocolate.)

Treat and Eat Night

Tonight was my school's Treat and Eat night. All the kiddos come back to school dressed in their costumes and teachers and parent volunteers pass out candy (as well as some other things that I never see since I am passing out candy). I was very excited to bring Sophie so that she could help me pass out candy. She enjoys people watching (like her momma), so I figured she would enjoy this.

I was a little nervous today about not taking Sophie home right after I picked her up from the baby sitter's. Sophie normally naps when she gets home and can be a grump when she doesn't get her nap. Yesterday we tried going to our niece's birthday dinner and Sophie, who didn't get her nap (and is still getting over her ear infection), threw a complete fit in the car. We ended up having to turn around and go home so she could sleep. I was hoping that I wouldn't have a repeat of yesterday, and was relieved to find out that Sophie just got up from a nap. Whew!

I picked up fast food for dinner and we headed over to school. Sophie enjoyed her nugget and french fries (a meal she will always eat). I must have made her impatient with giving her small pieces of nuggets though, because she reached over and grabbed a whole one. I didn't think she would be able to do much with it, but she proved me wrong by biting of small bits of the nugget. She ended up eating at least half of a nugget all on her own. I was impressed; she is such an independent little lady.

Then Sophie put the whole nugget in her mouth. What a goofy kid I have! (Sophie, of course, thought she was hilarious and had a huge grin on her face the whole time.)

The hallways were pretty empty, so I let Sophie go exploring. She was crawling all over the place, while I tried hard to not think about all of the germs she was crawling through. She enjoyed playing around in my classroom as well. (My students did a lot of cleaning and sanitizing just for Sophie.) Her favorite thing was trying to take some of the posters off my wall. Stinker.

I took Sophie around to look at all of the pumpkins that the different classrooms decorated. She loved them! She kept "oohhh"ing and pointing at them. We had to walk around to look at them all a few times since she enjoyed them so much. She probably wanted to hold them like she does with the ones at home.

My classroom's pumpkin

When the students were allowed up, Sophie and I stationed ourselves outside of my classroom, armed with a big bowl of candy. Sophie sat on my lap and just stared at everyone who came around. She wanted to touch some of the costumes and craned her neck to watch as some of the kids left. She even dropped a few pieces of candy in kids' bags, though most candy I gave her she just held onto or dropped onto the floor. Sophie got to meet a lot of my students, who were all very happy to see her, as they've been wanting to see Sophie since school has started. A lot of my old students (and some of my favorite 'old' parents) came by to visit, too. They were so excited to see Sophie, especially those students who were in my classroom last year (they saw Sophie with her feeding tube and knew all about her troubles, so they were glad to see her doing so well).

Besides getting to pass out candy with me, Sophie was allowed to have a sucker for the first time tonight. She loved it! It kept her occupied when she started to become restless. She even shared her sucker with daddy and me, though she always took it right back. She was a sticky mess but such a happy girl.

"Do you want to try it, Dad?"

"Your time is up...I want it back."

Yum!

The only thing she didn't seem to enjoy about the night was her costume. The hood of the costume, to be exact. It was a little too big for her, so I don't really blame her for not wanting it on. Even without the hood on, she was a really cute ladybug.

"Take it off!"

I'm glad Sophie had a good time tonight. I love showing her off being able to share these experiences with her. (Oh, I love showing her off, too. I just can't help it. She is so darn cute!)

Oops...

Well, Sophie has drank Coke Zero for the first time tonight. I was playing with Sophie on the floor and she crawled past me. I didn't get up to go right after her because I thought "what can she get into?" Stupid mom. See, Sophie is always trying to pull things off our end table and Joe had his drink up there today. She grabbed it and dumped it right on her. Of course her mouth was open during this so she got a huge mouthful. She choked a little (scared me ), but spit most of it out. Geez...you can't turn your back on Sophie for a minute! Lesson learned.

(If my father is reading...this does NOT mean she gets to have Coke now. :-) Love you.)

"Wake up, Dad. It is time to read."

Joe woke up to Sophie babbling around 6 this morning. Thinking she was in pain from her ear, he went in to check on her. He couldn't believe his eyes. She had her musical seahorse turned one (which lights up, kinda like a glow worm) and she was looking through a book that was in her crib. Yes, our daughter turned on a light to read in bed. That sounds like something her momma would do! I can't wait to catch her reading a book under her covers with a flashlight when she is older.

Ear Infection

Sophie has an ear infection. This is the second one she has had and she is handling this one much better than the first. She hasn't been sleeping well and she has had a fever for two days. For the most part though she is still acting like her normal self, just a little more clingy. I took off work today so I could take her to the doctor's and take care of her. I was glad to spend the day with her, cuddled up in bed and playing around. I just hope my baby feels better soon! I hate it when she isn't feeling well, especially when there is nothing I can do for her.

Can you believe she woke up with a 103° fever and has an ear infection?



Even when she isn't feeling well, Sophie is still a good natured kid. I love that about her. 

14 Months

Sophie is 14 months already! Time sure does fly when you are having fun. Sophie is at such a fun age now. It seems like everyday she is learning something new or perfecting something she has already done. I can't get over all of the things she does now and how she is growing up. Here is a (not so) quick rundown of what has happened this month:

• Sophie weighs 14 pounds and 3.9 ounces. We have finally used all of her size 1-2 diapers so she is offically in size 2 diapers now. She still is in size 3-6/6 month clothes. I have been sewing all of her pants so that they fit her waist. The ones I haven't worked on yet come off very easily. Sophie is pretty sneaky about it, too. One second she has them on and then the next second they are off. Or she will be crawling on the floor and she crawls right out of them!
• Sophie can identify her nose and mouth. When you ask her where her nose is, she will point to it right away. Most of the time after that she will then pick it. :-/ When you ask her where her mouth it, she will clap a hand over her mouth. Usually she will then move her hand on and off her mouth making the "wah wah wah wah" sound (or the Indian sound, as my politically incorrect younger self used to call it.) Sometimes she will point to her eyes, but not as often as the nose and mouth. We are still working on getting her to point to her ears, but no luck yet.
• Sophie uses "Uh ohhh" properly now. She has been saying this for at least 4 months now but only in response to Joe or I saying it. The past few days though she has been saying it when she drops things. Earlier this week as I was brushing my teeth, Sophie was dropping random items into the bathtub behind me. After each item dropped she would say, "uh ohhhh." She continued doing this the rest of the week when she would (purposely) drop things. So cute and so rotten!
• Sophie loves to "plank." Out of nowhere she will just slide out onto the ground with her legs behind her and her arms in front of her. Usually she will kick her legs around, playfully. It is so cute and so random. She cracks up at herself when doing it.
• Still no walking or standing alone for Sophie. She can hold on with one hand and bend over to pick things up like a champ. She can even hold onto things with just a finger or two, but she just refuses to let go and stand on her own. I tricked her into doing it for two seconds two weeks ago, but when she realized what was happening she sat down. She is refusing to walk, too. Before when we would hold her hands while she stood she would run, not walk, around. Now she just lifts up her legs in protest so that she is just hanging in the air. (I am equal parts frustrated and impressed by her little ab muscles.) I know she will walk and stand when she is ready, but I can't help but feel anxious about it. I can't wait to see those first steps. Then again, those first steps signify real independence which is a bit scary and sad for this mom.
• We discovered that Sophie likes spicy food...pepperoni, sausage, curry chicken, chicken fajitas. Who knew!
• Sophie has been throwing some trantrums. Not too many, but when they happen they are serious tantrums. I think most of it is just from teething and when she is tired, but still. Her tantrums come from having something taken away from her or if she stumbles/gets scared (like if she was pulling on something and fell backwards). She will plank herself and start kicking her legs against the ground while yelling. Awesome. I thought we had another year before this started.
• Sophie loves talking and babbling. Her new sound is "la la la." She loves moving her tongue around when she makes the sound. I kept wondering where she picked up this sound, as I wasn't really practicing it with her. Then I remembered that my niece will make silly faces and do that sound every time she sees Sophie, which always makes Sophie laugh. Kaci taught Sophie something new! What a great cousin.
• Sophie loves exploring. She will climb over things and squeeze into places so that she can see everything. Her current favorite place to squeeze into is between the couch and end table.
• Sophie loves Cosmo. Anyone who knows Sophie or has seen pictures of her know that she loves her cat. Seriously though, she adores that cat. Whenever she seems her she breaks out into a big smile. She loves laying on Cosmo and touching her. One morning I was changing her diaper and Cosmo appeared in the doorway. Sophie yelled, "CAT!" and tried to climb off the changing table (while I was still trying to put the diaper on her). Looking for Cosmo is one of her favorite things to do when we get home each day. We are lucky to have such a good cat who is so nice to our daughter.
• Sophie loves playing with our phones, both cell and land line. Before she used to just play with the buttons but now she understands that she needs to put it up to her ear. She even tries to prop up the phone on her shoulder by squashing the phone between her shoulder and head. So cute.
• Sophie has the silliest laugh. She can giggle, but most of the time she will do this really loud and nerdy "AH HAAA" laugh. She gets the biggest grin on her face when she does it, too. (The picture at the top of this post is one of her doing her laugh.) It never fails to make me smile.

I love watching Sophie grow up. I can't wait to see what new experiences and changes this next months brings.

Click the link before for some pictures from this month.

Click on the pictures to see them full size.

Trying out her new sippy cup - no more handles!



Hanging out in a tent with Becki

"Enough, Mom! (I imagine this will be what teenage Sophie is like.)

I always have to hit redial after she plays with the phone, just to make sure she didn't actually call someone.

Such a serious reader



She was like this in the womb and after she was born. I love that she still sleeps like this!

I love how Cosmo just takes this abuse.

This was the one time she let me put shoes on and they stayed on.

Grandma's girls

She loves her walker

So proud of herself

These are our toy boxes for the living room. She loves pulling things out of them. One day she actually got stuck and almost fell in. It was quite funny.

Exploring a tight space

Sophie and Aunt Sara

Blowing kisses

Yeah!!

Sophie is loving these little fruit pouches. It is basically just baby food in a pouch instead of a jar. She never liked baby food, but I guess it is good when it is in a pouch. Whatever gets her to eat.

Sophie has drank 5 ounces in one sitting (a HUGE deal to us) multiple times, so I decided to get some bigger bottles for her to use. We all were pretty excited about this. (She is drinking chocolate pediasure, not chocolate milk, btw.)

Visiting Daddy at work.

Grandpa's girls

Sophie loves pretzel rods. She gets really excited when I pull out the package of them.

Some days I think Sophie's hair looks like Justin Beiber's. Other days I think it looks like Donald Trumps. I refuse to cut it though (even though I have been asked about that multiple times) so that it will grow longer. I just wish she would keep her hair up when I put it up!

Since Sophie doesn't really at at her high chair, we are trying out her table as the location where she eats now. Cosmo was pretty excited by this as she can reach Sophie's food easier now.